PO984 - The Global Food System

Module content and teaching

Principal aims

This module explores how these diverse areas are intertwined and exposes the global links between national food and farming economies. Its aim is to provide students with a critical introduction to debates around food and agriculture, and to offer an empirically-rich field in which to explore ideas about poverty, power and politics. It begins by outlining the cross-border connections that constitute a global food system, before discussing three concepts – security, justice and sustainability – and some of the issues they are linked with.

Principal learning outcomes

Undertake critical analysis of how food is produced, traded and consumed and the differences this makes to people’s wealth, health, their identity and safety. Identify where power lies in the global food system, the overlapping jurisdictions of different actors with power, and how these contest the politics of food and agriculture. Make normative claims about the future of a complex issue-area, giving arguments for how power, control, risks and benefits should be spread. Recognise the insights, biases and blind spots of different conceptual lenses and theoretical approaches. Develop professional skills in writing and debating on current affairs and ‘real world’ problems.